Thespian Thoughts Theatre Review – Green Grow The Lilacs

Everyone knows much loved musical Oklahoma but fewer people are familiar with the original play which inspired it, Green Grow The Lilacs.

Rodgers and Hammerstein took that show’s plot and characters and added better songs and pacing to create their enduring classic.

So while watching the original at Theatricum Botanicum is an interesting curiosity, you still can’t help wishing the cowboys and farm girls on stage would burst into more rousing numbers from the reboot, like title song Oklahoma.

Luckily there is some good acting on show to hold the interest and Zachary Davidson has a lot of fun with his role as the Syrian peddler, incidentally a part first played on Broadway in 1931 by method acting maestro Lee Strasberg.

The mix of romance and ballads all makes for a pleasant night out in Topanga, California, at what remains LA County’s most beautiful outdoor theater space.